Goffi Named Men's Head Coach at South Carolina; Kalbas and Smith Take Coach of Year Honors; Tryouts for McEnroe's Academy
Josh Goffi, the assistant coach of men's tennis at Duke University, has been hired to lead the University of South Carolina men's program. Goffi takes over for Kent DeMars, who announced his retirement earlier this year after 26 years in Columbia. DeMars was inducted into the ITA Collegiate Hall of Fame last month in Athens, Ga. With Goffi taking the South Carolina job and Tony Bresky of Virginia taking the Cornell job, there are now two high-profile assistant positions vacant in the ACC. For more on Goffi, see the South Carolina athletic site.
The ITA Coach of the Year awards were not announced at the ITA luncheon prior to the team finals, but they have now been released. Peter Smith of USC received the men's award, and Brian Kalbas of North Carolina was named the women's coach of the year. For all the ITA award winners, see the ITA website. I was disappointed to learn that the John Van Nostrand Memorial Award was discontinued by the family. In the past, it provided a small stipend to a senior men's tennis player for use in embarking on a professional career. Ryler DeHeart of Illinois, Stephen Bass of Notre Dame and Greg Ouellette of Florida were a few of the recent winners.
In a previous post last month, I mentioned the debut of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York, and recently Long Island Tennis Magazine provided more details on McEnroe's venture along with word that there are two full scholarships available:
...the Academy will hold open tryouts this July for young persons interested in attending the McEnroe Academy starting in September. One boy and one girl between the ages of eight- and 16-years-old will be selected by McEnroe to receive a full scholarship for a year of training at the McEnroe Academy. The tryouts will be held on July 14 for boys and on July 19 for girls, beginning at 8:30 a.m. each day, at Sportime at Randall’s Island, located at One Randall’s Island in Manhattan.Late last month Scott Price of Sports Illustrated weighed in on the two McEnroe brothers' divergent player development ventures, and he has his doubts about John's suitability for the role.
8 comments:
Ha, so the USTA somehow implies it helps three already established pros as part of its junior development program? How silly. I guarantee you Pat Mac will never find or develop a top 10 player.
if the USTA left tennis to the player's personal coaches, i think we could produce top 10 players. with the USTA taking and trying to "DEVELOP" every player who is improving on their own, there is no way they will produce. The USTA cant DEVELOP tennis players. the only thing they can do is mess up players on the right track.
you notice ryan harrison has not once used the USTA other than for WC's and money and he is by far our only american hope. he doesnt change a winning formula of training where he is improving.
tennis--
Personal coaches do coach almost all of the US juniors players.
So please explain what you mean by "usta take and trying to develop every player who is improving on their own"
Please explain your uage of the word "take." What players are you referring to as the usta "taking"?
ryan harrison is using the usta for a traveling coach, money, and wc's.
Tennis
It seems you are one of those people who always complain about everything and get a highlight by ripping on the easy target--the usta. It's actually quite boring to read to the same stuff over and over.
The tennis world is full of great things, try and enjoy it.
they "take" every player that is coming up. not that the players would make it big time anyways but they wont succeed with the USTA.
Evan king, chase buchanan, jarmere jenkins, rhyne williams, raymond sarmiento, nathan pasha, lawrence formentera, just to name the older players. i am not including the number of 93, 94, 95, and 96 players they have in boca.
Ryan harrison is not training with the USTA. They are not DEVELOPING HIM. I think its good to use the USTA for WC's and money and support at tournaments, but not for training and developing because it wont happen.
A big problem with the USTA is that a lot of the top Developmental coaches in the country simply do not want to work for the USTA. The best example would be Robert Lansdorp, possibly the best developmental coach in the country. I think if the USTA could hire someone like him to work to develop our young talent US tennis can pick back up in no time. If you look at his resume, it speaks for itself.
But if Lansdorp became a part of the USTA...then that would just lead to more "taking" of junior players.
What you have to remember is that these players go to the USTA because they want to, not because they have to. They can go back to their personal coaches whenever they want, nobody is forcing them to stay with the USTA.
tennis is right, I've seen the USTA take many aggressive talented players and turn them into higher percentage topspin grinders that make a lot of balls seeking to outlast their competitors. The methods works very well in juniors and college but is a recipe for disaster in pro development.
Keep in mind that there are ZERO teenagers in the top 100 in the World. Players that are 22 and 23 yrs old, like DeBakker, Dogopolov jr., and Lacko are starting to make a push in the top 50-80.
The 18-20 yr olds--no one is in the Top 150 in the World: Rufin (20), 174, Krajinovic (18) 177, Harrison (18) 239, Tomic (18) 252, Kontinen (20) 253, Janowicz (20) 288. Even Grigor Dmitirov is having a really tough time making the climb into the Top 100.
There are also the superstars, the super desired: Murray, Del Potro, Djokovic, Cilic, Querrey, who are in the 22-23 age range.
Even the super coaches: Macci, Lansdorp, Vant'f, etc haven't put any male players in the Top 100 in an extremely long time: years and years. Maybe Bob Brett with Cilic a few years ago.
Our better American kids are going to need to utilize college again, as a developmental stage. Our better juniors stopped going to college 4-5 years ago. Finally, the better juniors are going back to college to better prepare them for the Pro Tour.
Most of the guys you mentioned, are in their 1st-2nd yr of college: Rhyne, Evan, Chase, Jarmere, Lawrence (only at usta for 2 months).
American Tennis is doing well developmentally. If Donald Young would have trained harder or had coaching outside of his parents, he would have been high in the rankings, if Brain Baker never had hip injuries, if Alex Kuznetsov never had a car accident several years ago. Amer Delic is injured. No one would be asking what's wrong with American Tennis. But excuses do not cut it. We have had our young superstars but none hit the big time.
In closing, no one is developing teenage sensations right now. Players are making their serious jumps in their early 20s, not their teenage years.
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